From the Archives: The Drunk Chromosomes of a Drunk (He who drinks sinks, didn't you know?) - Nana Fredua-Agyeman


On the fertile footpath
to the weedy farm
he fell…

(Sun and Moon at a twilight reunion)

…and died not
…and the conceived son
from the drunk communion
was not a toad-cow…

The mirror
reflects the contents of the mind…
The soul
harbours the deeds of the body…

The crab
surely begets a crab
You sow what you reaped
the farming season before…

Then he saw no heavens
…but a vast emptiness
He felt his feet suspend in space:
the Lotus-Eater cum Palm-Wine Gulper
He sang songs of lamentations
beneath the palm-wine seller’s shed

He tossed
turned
…tossed
Balanced himself
Fell
Broke his neck

His son has a bottle in his back pocket
A stoic man to succeed his father
…and he has his father’s Drunk Chromosomes
He is his father
moulted into prime youthfulness
to continue plying his trade
To be the gods’ concrete example of advice.


Old poems at OGOV don't die, but live on in our archives! Every once in a while we will dust one off for our newer readers to enjoy. "The Drunk Chromosomes of a Drunk..." was orginally published on OGOV on April 17th, 2010.

1 comment:

Darko Antwi said...

Fredua-Agyeman's haikus are exciting. So are the other forms he writes. Two years on, I'm still baffled by the greatness in this particular poem. On that premise, I leave this note:

If you subscribe to the notion that Ghanaian poetry of today has developed around some extremely good talents, then the reading of Fredua-Agyeman's titles will do a graceful lot to confirm and establish your faith in its advancement.

Again, welldone Nana.